Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Every year fangirls, fanboys, fandoms unite across the globe
to catch a glimpse of their favorite TV show heroes, favorite authors, and
favorite movie stars… through their computer screen. That’s right folks, despite
the staggering number of people to attend Comic-Con every year (around 130,000
in recent years), most of the fans are stuck at home, hundreds of miles away,
daydreaming of the perfect cosplay outfit or the chance for a photo op with
their favorite superhero. However, this sad turn of fate doesn’t hinder our
ability to enjoy the ins and outs of Comic-Con, and to enjoy fandom.

The team here at The Fangirl Initiative joined with the millions
of fans and watched from our bedrooms, couches, and kitchens (come on, we still
need snacks) to hear drool worth information about the next season our favorite TV show or the
upcoming blockbuster movie. From Disney to DC, we’ve fangirled over
the exciting new announcements and shenanigans that occurred during this
weekend extravaganza, and now we’re bringing the fangirling to you.

Rica Wiersema

There are some remarks that are an absolute joy to say. And whether I’m being surprised, forceful, or — in this case — exceedingly smug, there are three words that I enjoy speaking above almost any other:

This week, I had the pleasure of finding out that one of my major fan theories has come true — namely, that Camelot will be in the next season of Once Upon A Time.

The addition of characters like King Arthur and Merlin was first hinted at in the episode “Heroes and Villains,” after Rumpelstiltskin returned from Camelot with a stolen magical gauntlet. That was a big, heart-wrenching episode in Season 4 right before winter break. Robin Hood had to take his family across the town line, and then Belle discovered her husband’s treachery and exiled him. And Camelot wasn’t the only myth that the show hinted at; there was a grecian urn and herculean helmet in Rumpelstiltskin’s castle that made me suspect we might be seeing future cameos by Hercules and co.

And it would seem that the knights of the round table aren’t the only characters coming to Sunday nights on ABC; another major reveal for OUAT fans was the new addition of a certain sharp-shooting Disney Princess!

Okay, so technically she’s a Pixar princess. But if you tell Disney that, they’ll get mad at you…

Does this mean we can petition for Buzz Lightyear to land a rocket in Storybrooke?]

Portrayed by Amy Manson (who played Daisy in the British version of Being Human), the snarky Scottish lass Merida of the clan DunBroch will be joining Arthur and all the rest.

Other noted characters to come include Merlin (Elliot Knight, who played Sinbad in the one-season TV series of the same name. You may also know him from his two episodes of How to Get Away With Murder); Guinevere (Joana Metrass, a minor character in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.); and Arthur’s best friend Lancel… I mean… Percival (Andrew Jenkins, who was in a single episode of Supernatural). So apparently Lancelot is either nonexistent in this universe, or else he already got thrown out of the kingdom for his affair with Guinevere.

There were other enjoyable reveals for the OUAT audience at Comic-Con, from clips of September 27th’s upcoming episode Dark Swan, to a hilarious tongue-in-cheek short video about three Storybrooke citizens that chose to stay in town after the queens of darkness strolled in. I highly recommend you take a look at that video, because Patton Oswalt is in it.

Nerds may know him as Koenig in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though he’s really had countless phenomenal roles all over the place.

September can’t come fast enough now. The only thing that could have made these plot reveals any better would have been confirmation that Hades is coming to Storybrooke, too.

Come on. You can’t deny how entertaining that would be.

Anna Catherine

Sanjay's Super Team

Sanjay's Super Team is a new Disney Pixar short that was made to accompany The Good Dinosaur, which will be released this November. It is about a young boy who doesn't understand his father's Hindu beliefs. After a fantastical encounter with three traditional Hindu gods (re-imagined as superheroes), he comes to respect Hinduism. The panel showed not only Sanjay's Super Team, but several interesting tidbits about it as well. As often happens with Pixar, the short is driven by personal experience. Sanjay Patel, who directed it, tells the story of his own Hindu background. As a child, he rejected his parent's beliefs because he wanted to be more "American." Later, he embraced the rich culture of his past and put it in the form of this short. The panel also showed the emotional and heartwarming reaction of Patel's father to the short.

The Muppets

Possibly the most popular Disney panel was the Muppets'. For the first time, Kermit and his crew took the Comic-Con stage to promote their new ABC television show. They revealed that the show takes place "behind the scenes" of Miss Piggy's new talk show, Up Late with Miss Piggy, of which Kermit is executive producer, Gonzo is head writer, Fozzie is Piggy's on-air sidekick, Scooter is the talent coordinator, Sam Eagle is the head of broadcast standards, and the Swedish Chef is in charge of craft services. The panel was said to be very funny, Miss Piggy being the butt of many jokes. The panel also stated that Piggy and Kermit have broken up, and Kermit is now seeing someone else. This show is being marketed for adults, so it will not be the same "family fun" kind of show as the original.

Disney Infinity

Disney Infinity's Pop Up Shop at Comic-Con allowed gamers to try out Disney Infinity 3.0, a version yet to be released. The new version will include new characters from Tron, Inside Out, Star Wars, and Marvel. The shop let you pick from any of the new figures and allowed you to test them. Hulkbuster Iron Man, Sadness, and Minnie Mouse were just a few of many you could choose from. The shop got gamers excited for the newest additions set to release to the general public in August.

Jaime Heller

At Comic-Con this year, the Warner Brothers and DC Comics duo teamed up for a three-hour, superhero panel to showcase six DC Comics related superhero shows: Arrow (The CW), The Flash (The CW), Supergirl (CBS), Legends of Tomorrow (The CW), Gotham* (Fox), and Vixen (The CW Seed). This is one panel of epic proportion. Within the three-hour event, a lot of new announcements were unveiled and a host of fangirl-worthy moments occurred.

One being, Arrow’s own Stephen Amell opening the panel dressed in his new Arrow suit (which apparently looks closer to the classic Green Arrow suit). Talk about epic. In the panel video, he stands on stage and proclaims, “San Diego Comic-Con, you have not failed this city.” He then starts the famous line of the show “My name is Oliver Queen...” and proceeds to give a summary of the past three years of the show in a humorous parody of the opening lines. It’s really worth the watch.

They’ve also announced Damien Dark as the new villain of season four (he was briefly mentioned during the end of season three to be a nemesis of Ra’s). Of course other familiar (or maybe not so familiar) DC characters will pop in and out over the course of the season. We’ll see more “suited” hero action, such as Speedy (aka Thea Queen) and Black Canary (Laurel Lance). They’ve announced the addition of Mr. Terrific to the show, who is a classic Justice Society character in the comics. It looks like we've got a good season coming up.

For The Flash, it was announced the character, Jay Garrick (aka the original Flash), will be making an appearance in season two, played by Teddy Sears. In the season one finale, they hid an Easter egg of his hat coming through the time portal. Let’s just say I’m excited for this turn of events.

They’re planning to use Cisco and his metahuman abiltiies to be the focal point for alternate universes, such as Earth-2 (which will explain Jay Garrick and possibly Wally West’s interactions with Barry). In addition, there’s going to be another lead lady who might catch Barry’s eye. And the villain for season too is going to be… Professor Zoom (which is confusing because Professor Zoom is the Reverse-Flash???). This highlight reel of season one gives a brief glimpse of season two at the end. Enjoy.

Legends of Tomorrow only had a brief time at Comic-Con, since most of their “promo” stuff is still in the works. They did mention White Canary, Sara Lance, will be a different character than Canary in Arrow due to her resurrection in the Lazarus Pit (which is obvious). They’ve confirmed Hawkman (!!!) will be involved with the show in some aspect (I’m dancing right now, I promise!). In addition, they’ve figured in that Arrow and The Flash episodes will lead up to the Legends of Tomorrow premiere, which means… more crossovers!!!

Supergirl was a big discussion topic too at Comic-Con. While it’s not part of The CW team, the show is still part of DC’s TV show line up this fall with its debut. They producers highlighted that not only is there a strong female lead on the show, but there’s a strong female behind the show with writer, Ali Alder. They also mentioned that despite the thousands of ladies who auditioned for the role of Supergirl, they found Melissa Benoist at the beginning, similar to the castings Stephen Amell for Oliver Queen and Grant Gustin for Barry Allen. They unveiled the classic character, Maxwell Lord, will be joining the show, the hint of Lois Lane’s sister coming to the show, and that the first villains will be Livewire and Reactron.

Plus Melissa Benoist spent her time discussing the new show that officially airs October 26, as well as making a lot of little girls' dreams come true...

DC had a lot going on with just their TV show avenue, but we can’t forget the panel for the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie (with a new trailer release) and the first glimpse of Suicide Squad… watch if you dare.

Sky Destrian

One of my favorite things that arose out of Comic-Con was the Great Dubsmash war of 2015.
Here's what happened...

Over the course of Comic-Con, the casts of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter made some videos using the app Dubsmash, which allows you to lip sync to popular songs and quotes. Hayley Atwell and James D'Arcy made up one side, and Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet made up the other. They made a series of escalating videos, that finally culminated in... this.

Obviously, Team Carter won, but maybe they'll treat us to another Dubsmash war next year. You can find all the Dubsmash videos and a timeline of how it went down here.

Another awesome thing that happened was a gathering of tons of different superheroes... including Stan Lee!

While Marvel's movie universe didn't have a panel at SDCC this year (why, Marvel, why?!), they did show up in the vendors halls... at least, Marvel Lego did. We got treated to a giant lego scene built straight out of Age of Ultron.

Even though the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn't there, we got some news from Fox. There was a trailer released for Deadpool as well as the new Fantastic Four movie and X-Men Apocalypse. Sadly, they haven't been officially released yet.

Overall, Comic-Con is a gratifying experience and I love watching all the exciting things that happen. I can't wait until I get to go to Comic-Con in person someday, and until then, I'll fangirl from my computer. In addition to the news we get, I love the environment of Comic-Con. It's a place where nerds can unabashedly be themselves. Nerddom isn't just accepted, it's celebrated. What could be better than that?

What was your favorite piece of news from this year's Comic-Con?

Look for more fangirling over comic-con announcements in the coming week as our fangirl team gathers intel!